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Fox finishes under-age career with 11th World Championship gold

Australia’s Jessica Fox has bounced back from heartbreak 24 hours earlier to win gold at her final individual appearance at the World U23 Canoe Slalom World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia.

And Slovakian teenager Marko Mirgorodsky successfully made the transition from junior to U23, winning the men’s C1 gold to add to the two junior gold medals he won in 2015 and 2016.

On Friday Fox, a London silver medallist and Rio bronze medallist, was left devastated after a 50-second penalty robbed her of a certain gold medal in the final of the U23 C1.

On Saturday she showed her class, racing within herself to ensure she would snare a fourth consecutive U23 K1 gold.

“There are days when you can have great big lows, and to come around and get back out there, it’s what I love,” Fox said.

“This is 50 times sweeter that yesterday. Yesterday was pretty draining emotionally. I gave everything in that run, and afterwards I was very upset emotionally.

“Today I didn’t want to give the video judges any chance of giving me an asterisk or a 50, I wanted to be middle of the gates. I definitely had that fire from yesterday.”

Fox finished in 101.21, ahead of Brazil’s Ana Satila in 102.69 and Poland’s Klaudia Zwolinska in 103.61.Marko Mirgorodsky was the last paddler on the water in the C1final, but quickly overcame any nerves with an error-free run that thrilled the Slovakian crowd.

Mirgorodsky finished in 93.48, well in front of Czech Vaclav Chaloupka (94.45) and defending champion Florian Bauer of Germany in 95.49.

“It’s perfect, I don’t know what to say except it is perfect,” Mirgorodsky said.

“I was a little bit tired. It was a bit hard for me because I could hear that Florian and Vaclav had done good times.

“This is special for me because home is home, and the atmosphere was great.”

In other results, Czech Antonie Galuskova won the junior K1 title in a time of 104.27, with Slovakia’s Eliska Mintalova second in 105.15, and fellow Czech, Lucie Nesnidalova third in 105.72.

“It’s amazing, I was so happy just that I made the final,” Galuskova said.

“It means a lot because it means I can fight against all the good girls.”

The junior men’s C1 title went to Poland’s Kacpar Sztuba, who had struggled in the opening rounds but had hit top form for the semi-finals and then the final, winning in a time of 97.12.

His time was 1.24 seconds quicker than Spain’s Miguel Trave, with Germany’s Lennard Tuchscherer third in 102.77.

“This is great for me, I’ve waited for this for two years,” Sztuba said.

“In Brazil (2015) I was second, and this is big. It is my last year as a junior, and now I am a World Champion.”

The U23 C2 mixed race was won by Russia’s Alsu Minazova and Aleksal Popov.